Good kids, foolish drivers
The accident that killed three Freehold High school teenagers and a 68-year-old retired school nurse led to record traffic on our app.com Web site, including a record number of posts to our Forums. The Forums discussions brought out the best in people, and, in some cases, the worst. While most of the posters expressed heartfelt sympathy for the victims and their families, much of the discussion centered around the issue of blame. Was the teen driver to blame for driving too fast? If he was driving too fast, was he acting any differently than many, if not most, young drivers? Were the parents of the driver to blame for giving him a high-octane car? Were the police and school officials to blame for not cracking down on students violating the rules of provisional licenses?
Here's my take: Dealing with the issue of teens and safety behind the wheel is a shared responsibility. Parents, schools officials and the police must do everything within their power to drive home the point that speed kills. But in all too many cases, that won't be enough to change behaviors. It wasn't when I was young. I was a good kid. But, like most kids, I was a fool when I got behind the wheel. The same thing that happened to the three Freehold High School kids could easily have happened to me.
There is no simple solution to the problem. But the most appropriate response would be a tightening of the provisional license rules, and strict enforcement of them by police, working in conjunction with parent groups and school officials.
Here's my take: Dealing with the issue of teens and safety behind the wheel is a shared responsibility. Parents, schools officials and the police must do everything within their power to drive home the point that speed kills. But in all too many cases, that won't be enough to change behaviors. It wasn't when I was young. I was a good kid. But, like most kids, I was a fool when I got behind the wheel. The same thing that happened to the three Freehold High School kids could easily have happened to me.
There is no simple solution to the problem. But the most appropriate response would be a tightening of the provisional license rules, and strict enforcement of them by police, working in conjunction with parent groups and school officials.
posted by Randy Bergmann at 8:39 AM
1 Comments:
I do not see how tightening restrictions on provisional licenses will help? Unfortunately, these types of accidents will always occur. No matter how many rules we make, someone out there will break them. My deepest sympathies go out to these families, but this all boils down to parents knowing thier child, some are responsible enough for a license and some are not. The burden lies on each parent to think about their child driving and then making the choice of allowing the child to get a license, or making that child wait a few years until they can handle the responsibility of driving, that is the only way these types of tragedies will be avoided. Lets all remember that driving is a privilege, not a right,
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